When Paul repented and converted to Christianity, he tried to join the disciples in Jerusalem; but they were all afraid of him, and did not believe that he was a disciple (Acts 9:26), because Paul, before then, was a vicious persecutor of the disciples of Jesus. He was having them arrested and imprisoned and approving of their death in a continued attempt to annihilate them from the scene. In response, the disciples thought the worst of him. Even when he repented and converted, they could not accept him. It was quite unthinkable to them that Paul would ever repent, for they deemed him too bad to convert, and in fact, too evil to be saved. They might have felt vengeful towards him for what he had done so much that they might not have ever wished him saved.
Such a vengeful feeling and pessimism still plague the hearts and minds of some Christians today. More often, they relent from soul-winning because they think it is quite beyond the realm of possibility for a certain caliber of unbelievers to be won for Christ. For example, Muslim extremists, terrorists, porn stars, serial killers, etc. how about those millions of Muslims in the middle-East and North Africa, how would you break through their Sharia Law and preach the gospel to them, etc. These are subjects that many Christian minds would shrink from; at best, those who do think about them sadly conclude that they are quite out of reach and nearly impossible to win them for Christ. To some Christian-minds, certain people are regarded as too depraved or wicked and unworthy of salvation and unworthy of being won for Christ. Other Christians do feel so vengeful against certain unbelievers (e.g. Osama bin Laden, etc.) for what they have done to such an extent that they would rather wish seeing them perish than saved. Jesus, the Lord, has dealt with this pessimism which results from human weakness long ago. See –
And they (the disciples) were greatly astonished, saying among
themselves, “Who then can be saved? But Jesus looked at them and
said, “With men it is impossible, but not with God; for with God all
things are possible.” (Mark 10: 26-27, also Matthew 19:26).
The main role player in soul-winning is God; hence no one is beyond the range of the possibility of being saved and being won for Christ; not even a terrorist, or a porn star, or a gay, or a lesbian, etc. Salvation is possible to every person no matter how evil we may deem the person to be; and though in most cases man does not see any possible means by which some unbelievers would be won, God makes it possible; He is mighty to save anybody. Who thought that Paul would ever convert to Christianity? But it happened by the will and the power of God.
Christians must not be doubtful about the possibility of winning the unbeliever for Christ; rather theirs is to do what they have been charged to do; that is, to make disciples. If every Christian does his part to fulfill the Great Commission, our collective efforts would amount to a significant change in the world and that which, earlier on, appeared to be difficult or impossible, would be achieved by the grace of God.
Once it happened that the Lord Jesus Christ appointed seventy disciples and sent them two by two ahead of Him to evangelize in every town and place where he was about to go. And this is what He told them,
“The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the
harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. (Luke 10:2)
The soul-winning mission is far too big that more hands, more workers, are needed to partake in it. In fact, the need for more hands is so urgent that Jesus taught us to pray to the Lord of the harvest for help. Who is the Lord of the harvest? The Lord of the harvest is Jesus Himself. Jesus has been helpful enough; He has, indeed, sent more workers into the soul-winning mission; there are about 2.3 billion Christians in the world and every one of them has been sent to win souls. They were all sent when Jesus issued this command,
“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, “teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen. (Matt 28:19,20)
According to pewresearch.org, as of 2015, the population of the world was estimated at 7.3 billion. Out of this 7.3 billion, the Christian population was estimated at 2.3 billion. If we even assume that all the estimated 2.3 billion people are genuine, saved Christians, then there is a remaining population of 5.1 billion non-Christians who are perishing. 5.1 billion perishing unbelievers! That is a very huge number. Brethren, the soul-winning mission is far too big for the few missionaries and evangelists to fulfill; it is too big for the efforts of your church leaders alone. If even your pastors, elders, deacons, deaconesses, etc. add to the missionaries and the evangelists, they are still far too small a number for the task. Every believer has to get involved.
Mind you, the Christian population of 2.3 billion lives with or among the 5.1 billion unbelievers and have many things in common with them — they go to the same school, use the same transport, use the same hospital, use the same social networks, etc. Some unbelievers are mothers and fathers of Christians; some of them are brothers and sisters of Christians; some are next-door neighbors of Christians; some of them are relatives of Christians; and still some, friends and social network friends and followers of Christians, etc.
Now if every Christian would make an effort to win his own unbelieving father, or mother, or sibling, or neighbor, or friend, or colleagues, etc., certainly, nearly all or, at least, more than half of the 5.1 billion unbelievers would be won for Christ. This is the time to get involved, be a soul-winner.